The Answer to Oh ! Cruel

Oh ! cruel was thy parents that envied our love,
And cruel was the press-gang that gave me such a shove,
That took me head and heels and put me in a sack,
And to the water side one took me on his back.
Singing too rol loo rol, etc.

I thought I was to die, so I began to pray,
'Why hang your lazy hide,' one unto me did say,
'If you don't hold your clack I'll throw you overboard.'
I thought to my dear Poll I shall never be restored.

They soon a sailor made me with their cuffs and whip,
I never lik'd their notions, I so often had to strip.
The enemy appeared. Oh ! dreadful was the sight,
The tarry lads so cheerfully preparing for the fight.

The captain loudly bawling every man to his gun,
I tried to skulk away, thinking I had none ;
But I very soon found out my skulking would not do,
For an officer with sword in hand would quickly run me through.

I waddled to the deck, but I rolled like an egg,
When there came a whacking cannon-ball and took away my leg.
I tumbled on my back and vented forth a sigh,
When a bullet in a twinkling knock'd out my poor right eye.

So from the cruel wars I am safe at home again,
And by my fiddling a livelyhood obtain,
And now you have proved true how happy shall we be
We'll pass the days and nights in love and harmony.

Tho' cruel was my fortune I haven't lost the way
Of getting grog at night by fiddling all the day;
And tho' I am depriv'd by a cruel cannon-ball,
She'd rather have me as I am then ne'er a man at all.